David Bellard

Washington

Dist of Columbia

Brooklyn Cutup

Artist's statement

Full Artist's statement

ARTIST STATEMENT

Nothing is immutable. Everything is variable. We finds ways to rearrange matter, numbers, cells, memories and time. We're not satisfied with the reality that life gives us, so we dissect it to understand how it was created then reassemble it to fit our expectations.

I've always been fascinated by the process of printing images, whether by ink or photographic, and the work I create almost always involves a combination of the two. I use photography to note a particular point in time, then I use collage and screenprinting to decode and re-interpret it as an entirely new point in the present. I dissect transparent pieces of time to construct a new intention, breaking the boundaries of film, frame and subject matter. Everyone who views this image also creates a new point in time and interprets it in that moment, altering my intention.

PROCESS

Much of my work is a combination of photography and screenprinting processes. I shoot all of my photos on a variety of medium-format cameras and movie cameras. I shoot on 120 film, super 8 and 16mm, all of them color reversal film. Color reversal film means I get back positive images that you can view with light (unlike negatives which must be printed to view the positive image). After I have the film processed, I create new transparency collages and constructions by cutting up the film using different tools and adhesives.

After a transparency collage is complete, I have it scanned at super high resolution and make photo print enlargements. These are not digital prints, but actual full size prints on photo paper from a specialty photo lab. Depending on the series, I might screenprint images onto these photo prints.

For the screenprint series, such as the prints on wood, I use my photo images, but I modify the image on a computer to such an extent that they become abstract, unrecognizable from their original subject.

I like to deconstruct the physical nature of my materials, as well as their conceptual purpose. Although the objective of both photography and printing is to create multiple copies of a single image, I make only one print from most transparency constructions. Once a print is completed, I seal the transparency construction in a block of lucite and transfer ownership of both the print and the transparency. Like buying a painting, the buyer now owns a singular piece of art and can display both the print and the lucite transparency. The lucite transparency gives a viewer additional insight to the process and makes a beautiful piece in and of itself.

There are rare occasions when I will make two photo prints of a transparency construction, generally to test how the screnprinted images will work on the photo. When there are multiple versions of a print, only the "alpha print" includes the transparency and is marked as such.